My personal goal is to be off-grid, no mortgage, poor and happy. Urban Homesteading may best describe all of my efforts. Like the movie Field of Dreams, "Build it and They Will Come" – I’m doing just that! Along with several like-minded folks, I'm creating an intentional Tiny Cohousing Community; overlaid within permaculture at its best.
I am in the process of building several examples of off-grid alternative housing solutions on my property in Kernersville, including:
- An off-grid 40-foot bus conversion into a tiny house motor home;
- A 5-plex micro pod tree house with individual living pods that will be placed on a 20-foot diameter base.
- A two-story stacked cargo container will feature living quarters on the upper unit (Studio A) and an aquaponics set up and ample storage in the lower unit (Studio B). Both units will feature a large amount of glass along the 40-foot South facing side to take advantage of passive solar design. There has been a great deal of earth moving in preparation of the containers coming.
I rent rooms out of the main house to like-minded people, an incubator of sorts of tiny house builders. I allow others to use the site to build their tiny homes, in exchange for help with consulting and group labor. One of my renters is working, going to college, and building a tiny house here. A man and wife team moved their 32' RV trailer to Camp Tiny House to up fit it to an all season off-grid tiny house. Another man and wife team brought in a 32 foot custom tri axle trailer, ready to build their tiny house.
I host the Sustainable Simplicity and Camp Tiny House of the Triad NC meetup.com groups here and am the co-organizer of many others including Triangle Tiny House in the Chapel Hill and Raleigh-Durham area. I am simply making my passion of creating spaces and places a reality. My Formula is... Love it, Share it, Live it. "Nothing is worth having unless you share it". Thanks for coming along on this journey with me. I look forward to sharing more about these projects over the next several months, so stay tuned or connect with me on my Facebook page - Camp Tiny House of the Triad NC.
John Williams is originally from Iowa and moved to Kernersville in 1995. His passion for living a simpler life and creating sustainable structures began as a child when he would build treehouses and even lived in an abandoned underground fresh water reservoir as a curious teenager. In 1979, John designed and built award-winning Passive Solar Earth Sheltered Housing, now commonly known as Green Roofs. John continues to pioneer the reawakening of urban and rural homesteading focusing on self-reliance and sustainable simplicity. He is able to demonstrate his knowledge of environmental topics through several local Meetup.com groups. John is the organizer of Sustainable Simplicity and co-organizer and member of several other meetup groups. To learn more about John, contact him at DrPrepper27@gmail.com.